The Basis of all Successful Eating Disorder Treatment

The most common response I receive from people who find my blog is the message of hope. Even with the widespread content about eating disorder recovery in social media, many people, especially those suffering for some time, long for a reason to believe things will improve.

With more information and education easily available about eating disorders, the implicit message is that people with an eating disorder can’t really get better. Recovery is a term that promotes the concept of a lifelong struggle. Widespread myths about these illnesses is that fully getting better isn’t an option. And the broadening community of people online with eating disorders don’t offer an exit strategy: once a member, always a member.

The loss of hope in eating disorder treatment over the last decade stems from two disparate pressures. First, the desire to find an identity is ever-present. Many young people with varying levels of severity of eating disorders organize their identity around the illness, which is an easily way to belong, especially online. Second, the venture capital intrusion into the eating disorder treatment world means replicable, oversimplified and mediocre care. The end result is less effective treatment. Without any clear hope of getting better, programs inadvertently encourage personal identification with the illness and even less of a drive to search for a different life.

The course of an eating disorder is variable. Many people recover either fully or partially early on in the illness. Even though symptoms linger for many, they can function well enough in life while connecting with the eating disorder identity. They typically expect to be sick forever.

For those with a more intractable eating disorder, social media identity and average clinical care make the future seem hopeless. They hope for a substantiated by a path towards getting fully well. They can’t find this information anywhere.

The reason I started this blog was twofold: to outline my thoughts about eating disorder treatment and to spread the message that people get better. I’ll review the ways people really can get better in the next few posts.